


three, four (and a few more)

by kamsangi



Category: H.O.T. (Band), SECHSKIES (Band)
Genre: Alternative Perspective, Crack, Fantasizing, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Piercings, The Author Regrets Nothing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 12:10:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14811137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kamsangi/pseuds/kamsangi
Summary: The one where Jaeduck starts getting piercings in increasingly risque places, and nobody really knows how to handle it (except one person).





	three, four (and a few more)

**Author's Note:**

> everything i write these days can be blamed on discord (love y'all). so this totally started because of [this](https://twitter.com/bonbonruru/status/988081374405038080) by the way.
> 
> disclaimer: i have minimal knowledge of piercings so don't take any of this seriously lol.
> 
> (also i wrote part of this way before all this stuff about jiyong popped up, so i apologise if you'd rather not read anything involving him. anyway it is all fiction and none of this is real.)

 

 

It’s been years, and everyone still looks the same.

Jiyong’s more than a little amazed, to be honest. They’ve all grown up over the years, getting their own lives, moving on past their awkward teenage phases—but every time he sees any of them, it’s like being shot back through a time machine.

Jiwon’s cleaned up so well from when Jiyong had seen him pop up on television shows here and there. Sunghoon’s hair has gone back to the brightest shades of colour possible (and even Jiyong’s wife has already asked Sunghoon for his skincare routine, so nothing needs to be said about that), and Suwon’s (thankfully) lost the facial hair. Even Jaejin, whom he hadn’t seen for years and years, looks the same. But, Jaeduck?

All of them are nearly forty years old (he doesn’t even want to think about that fact for longer than ten seconds, god, time’s passed way too quickly) and Jaeduck still looks like he could be on stage alongside kids who’ve just debuted this year, dancing to the same teen-boppy choreography, doing the same cutesy poses.

He’s always been the softest-looking one in the group. Nothing wrong with that at all, to be fair. He’s cute. Everyone thinks so.

(They really do. Honest to god. The group took a vote one night after a few too many drinks and Jaeduck had won by a landslide. Six votes to zero. No, Jiwon hadn’t miscounted again. Yes, Jaeduck had voted for himself. No shame in being honest, right?)

It’s probably more of a blessing than a curse. But, still.

They’d all planned to meet up for dinner tonight, after a few months of not catching up. They’d picked a restaurant closer to Jiyong’s, since he’s got to head home early, make sure the little one’s in bed, turn in early for work in the morning, and all that other adult stuff.

“Hey.” Jiwon nudges Suwon. “Where’s your other half?”

Suwon shrugs, flipping another page in the menu. “Don’t know. He said he had some kind of appointment to go for before dinner.”

“He’d better not be late,” Jiwon says.

Across from him, Sunghoon snorts. “Coming from the person who’s late for just about everything else.”

 _Noodles,_ Jiyong decides as Jiwon flicks a tissue over at Sunghoon in retaliation, only half-listening to the conversation going on around him. It’s enough that he gets to have this again, after all this time. Just being here with the others. _Yes, noodles are good._

It’s then that the overhead bell on the doorway to the restaurant chimes, and Jiyong looks up to see Jaeduck shimmying his way around the other tables, looking apologetic. “Sorry!” he says, once he’s reached theirs. “Got stuck in traffic.”

He plops himself down into the seat on the right of Jiyong, and turns to look for a menu, and there’s a flash of metal, high up on the side of Jaeduck’s face that Jiyong almost misses for a moment.

“What’s—” Jiyong starts, but then Jaeduck turns back to him, and Jiyong blinks. “Oh,” he says, a bit too loudly, and everyone at the table turns to see what he’s looking at.

“The fuck is that,” Jiwon says, and even Jaejin’s looking a little bug-eyed. “Did you go get that _just now?_ Is that why you were late?”

Jaeduck lifts a hand to his ear self-consciously, smiling. Everyone’s eyes track the motion. “Yeah,” he says, and Jiyong’s still a little distracted by the fact that there’s a _metal bar_ going through the top of Jaeduck’s ear. Holy shit. “It’s an industrial piercing. Thought it’d be more fun than another single helix.”

Jiyong has no idea what any of those words are that he’s just said mean, but _fun_ probably isn’t the word he’d use to describe it.

“You’re a piercing addict,” Suwon says. “What’s next, your nose? Eyebrow? Di—”

“Huh,” Jaeduck says thoughtfully, before he can even finish that last one. Somewhere in the background, Jiwon’s making choking noises at Suwon’s suggestions. _Same,_ thinks Jiyong. Same. “That’s a great idea.”

“Is the company even going to allow that?”

Jaeduck shrugs. “Dunno,” he says. “But it’s not like it’s up to them. I’ll get whatever piercings I want. They can’t stop me.”

So—well, all the stuff he’d just been saying about Jaeduck being soft? Being cute?

Jaeduck catches his eye and grins. Jiyong takes it all back _immediately._

“That’s the least passive thing I’ve ever heard you say,” Sunghoon remarks. “I’m a little scared now.”

“Yeah, same,” Suwon says. “It’s kinda hot.”

 _“Anyway,”_ Jiwon says loudly, coughing. He’s also trying very hard to not look in Jaeduck’s direction. “Can we get back to dinner and stop staring at Jaeduck, please.”

“I don’t mind the staring,” Jaeduck states offhandedly. “That’s really the reason I’m wearing all of these,” and it’s at that moment everyone notices that the rest of his piercings are also on display. All seven—or eight now, Jiyong supposes. “Wanted to see if they’d look good altogether.”

“I _really_ don’t mind the staring either,” Sunghoon says.

“Me neither,” Jaejin adds, putting up his hand.

“Same,” Jiyong says.

“Can I take photos?” Suwon asks, his phone already in his hand.

“God,” Jiwon sighs, “help us all.”

 

 

That night in the restaurant is probably what sets it off.

They’ve got a few fansigns coming up in a while. Sunghoon always looks forward to those. He loves interacting with fans, loves hearing what they have to say in person, loves seeing the smiles on their faces when he takes their hands or when he wishes them well.

A couple of months before the first one happens, there’s some sort of calamity happening on the internet, so he hops online to see what’s gone down. He’s greeted by waves of _ㅠㅠ_ messages and crying emojis and screaming about Jaeduck having updated with a photo. “Huh,” he says curiously, and he opens up Instagram instead, and taps on Jaeduck’s Instagram handle.

There’s a new photo on the left, and he opens it.

It’s a selfie. Jaeduck’s looking right at the camera, mouth quirked up into a half-smile, face angled in a way that shows off the undeniably bright, very much visible nose piercing, just a little stud on the left side of his nose.

The piercing is pretty. It’s small, and shines in the light, the set of the silvery-white gem a nice contrast to his dark eyes.

“Oh,” Sunghoon says to himself faintly, before seeing all the comments. It’s thousands of comments. They’re all some variation of tears or passing out or shrieking.

He doesn’t blame them. Man. He really doesn’t blame them at all.

 _this is the end for all of us,_ is Suwon’s comment, somewhere near the bottom. It has about a thousand likes.

There’s a reply attached to it. _you haven’t even seen the other one he bought to go with this!_ says tntonyan, to Sunghoon’s immense amusement, and underneath that, Suwon’s replied, _i came out here to have a good time and all i’m feeling is attacked right now._

Sunghoon closes Instagram, counts to ten, and goes to get coffee. It’s way too early to be thinking about—no. Definitely way too early.

 

 

The day of the fansign, Sunghoon’s waiting for the cue to go out. The group’s almost complete, just missing one more person.

“He’s running a little late,” one of their managers tells them, “they’ve gotten stuck in traffic.”

“We’ll have to start soon, we’ll just send him out as soon as he gets here.”

Eventually, they file out of the holding room, and wave at the fans who’ve come for the fansign, before taking their seats.

Sunghoon sits down, and idly sips at his coffee, fiddling with one of the markers. There’s a general sort-of chatter, the scattered click of cameras, and the low murmur of music playing from the speakers.

Another chorus of cheers rings out. Jaeduck must be here, Sunghoon assumes.

“Hey,” he says, not looking up as Jaeduck tugs his chair out and plops down beside him, “did you manage to—”

He’s interrupted by a chorus of shrieks, rising through the air like a tidal wave.

“What—” Sunghoon blinks, glancing around. It’s as if every camera in the area is going off. The fans look like they’re on the brink of collapse. Did something happen?

“Oh,” Jaeduck says, and Sunghoon finally turns to him. “That might be my fault. Sorry.”

Sunghoon’s eyes immediately focus in on Jaeduck’s face. “Oh my god,” he says, and Jaeduck absently tugs at one of his earrings—that’s got a chain hanging off it, leading straight to a ring in Jaeduck’s nose. “That’s not the one you’ve been wearing for the last two months.”

“Yeah, well. Thought it’d be fun to try something new. And it looks pretty.” Jaeduck shrugs. “Doesn’t it?”

Sunghoon can’t take his eyes off the chain. It’s just a simple silver one, thin and without any fancy additions. He’s aware that he must have been staring for at least a good twenty seconds by now. He can’t help it. He’d been absolutely fine seeing Jaeduck around with the stud in his nose, but this—

“It does,” Sunghoon says, voice a little scratchy, and he coughs, hastily reaching for his coffee, and taking a very, very long sip.

The rest of the fansign goes horribly for him. He’s constantly distracted by the shine of metal across Jaeduck’s face, and the way it dips from his nose to just below his face and up to his ear, drawing attention to the cut of his jaw.

When Sunghoon goes online the next day, he’s not even surprised when he sees a million and one zoomed-in photos of Jaeduck’s nose chain. He’s not even surprised when he sees it’s trending. He’s even more not-surprised when he sees that there are a couple of articles about it too.

What gets him is the fans attempting to guess where the next piercing will be, and some of the suggestions they’re making. “Christ,” he mutters, “are all of these secretly Suwon’s accounts?”

He’s not even half-wrong. When Jaeduck posts another selfie to Instagram, Suwon’s comment is one of the first ones on there.

 _I have fifty bucks riding on the next one being lower down,_ it says.

Sunghoon types a reply before he can stop himself. _Another fifty says it’ll still be on his face._

A reply appears soon after. _Call!_

 

 

Then, Jaeduck’s own reply to that thread, a few months later: _Sorry I lost you money, Swon-ah!_

 

 

It’s distracting.

Scratch that. Distracting is an understatement.

They’d gone out for coffee, him and Jaeduck. It’s not like he hadn’t known that Jaeduck was getting it, of course he knew. Jaeduck always tells him about all the terrible life decisions he makes before he makes them (“This is not a terrible life decision!” Jaeduck had said indignantly over the phone; Suwon had just replied, “It is for me.”).

It’s just different knowing something and then seeing it for yourself later on.

And by ‘seeing it,’ Suwon means spending two hours doing nothing but staring at the thin silver ring that now decorates the side of Jaeduck’s lower lip.

“Suwon,” Jaeduck says, waving a hand in front of his face, and he snaps back to attention. “Did you hear a single word of what I was saying at all?”

“Uh,” Suwon says, wracking his brain for some recollection of the conversation they’d (apparently) just had. “Something... about... the dogs?”

Jaeduck brightens up. “Wasn’t it cute? I can’t believe we managed to teach Xanduck how to do that! Tony’s still wondering if it’ll work with Edworld since he’s a little older—”

Suwon’s gaze falls from Jaeduck’s eyes to his lip again.

He really can’t help it. Of all the places to get a piercing—it had to be there. Jaeduck’s always had a nice mouth, but the ring just draws all of his attention to his full lower lip now. It’s a little more swollen, a little redder than usual too, since he’d only gotten it recently.

He’s been fidgeting with it too, every now and then. Just running a finger along the sharp bite of steel, or sticking his tongue out the corner of his mouth. Suwon imagines being close enough to touch it himself, running his thumb along metal, and then across that swollen lower lip. Maybe replace that finger with his own mouth. Closing his teeth gently over the ring and tugging, just a little, and then licking over that hurt. Jaeduck would make the best noises—

“Suwon. Okay. Now I know you’re not listening to me at all.”

Oops.

“What?”

Jaeduck looks unimpressed. “I just asked if you’d lend me all your money and your car and the keys to your flat, and you agreed.”

“Maybe I’m just feeling a little generous, how about that,” Suwon counters weakly.

He totally didn’t hear a single word.

Jaeduck laughs. “You know,” he says, “I was planning to get two. One on each side. Changed my mind, though. I think I’ve got enough on my face already. Time to switch it up a little.”

Suwon coughs. “And by switch it up a little, you mean…”

Jaeduck licks his lip absently. Fuck, he’s staring again. He needs to go home and take a very, very, very cold shower after this. “I did mention it that one time.”

“No,” says Suwon.

 _Yes,_ thinks Suwon. _God, yes._

 

“Dude,” Jiwon goes, one night over drinks with the rest of their ragtag same-age group, “you have to tell him to stop getting them.”

“Why would I?”

“Health and safety reasons.”

Tony snorts. “Good luck trying to convince him. He’s already planning on getting more.”

_“Where?”_

“You guys seriously need to get a grip,” Myunghoon remarks, “how bad could it be?”

Jiwon pulls out his phone, and the rest of the table all squeeze over to look. He flicks through a few photos, and stops on one particular photo.

“Oh,” Danny says, going a little cross-eyed. “Huh.”

“You weren’t kidding.” Heejun makes Jiwon go back to the previous photo. “Damn. Hey, should I get one of those?”

“No,” the entire table says.

“Okay, now I’m definitely not telling you where the next one’s going to be,” Tony says, “where’s the fun in that?”

“I hate you,” Jiwon mutters. “This whole situation is wasted on you.”

Tony just takes a sip of his drink. “If you say so,” he says vaguely.

 

 

Suwon, being the snitch he is, of course blabs to the rest of them that Jaeduck’s got a new piercing right before they meet up for dance practice. Jaejin doesn’t really bother at this point. The face piercings aren’t really anything to fuss about, since he’s not really a fan of them himself.

“Yeah, we know, we’ve seen the lip one already,” Jiwon’s telling Suwon as Jaejin unpacks a weight from his gym bag. “That was weeks ago.”

“Not that one,” Suwon says, “it’s newer.”

Jaeduck picks that moment to walk in. “Hey!” he greets, smiling sunnily.

Everyone stops and stares.

Jaeduck stops too, and blinks. “What?”

“Nothing,” they all say in unison, and they turn away. “Damn,” Jiwon says, “don’t think I see any new ones. Does that mean it’s—”

“Shut up, he might hear you,” Sunghoon hisses.

Jaejin ignores them, and goes to warm up before they start. Let them talk about whatever they want. He’ll just be here, not interested. Jaejin definitely does not care about anything related to piercings.

They get through about forty minutes of practice before they’re calling for a break.

He paces around the room, hands on his hips, catching his breath.

Beside him, he catches a glimpse of Jaeduck in the mirror, stretching lightly. As he lifts his arms above his head and tilts towards one side, his sweater rides up. There’s the bright flash of something that definitely isn’t cloth, just above the hem of his sweatpants.

Jaejin’s mouth goes a little dry.

He takes a few steps back, and says, “So. Uh. Where did you say he got it again?”

Everyone follows his gaze to see Jaeduck tug his sweater up to wipe at the sweat on his face. On his navel, there’s a shiny bit of metal. It’s not a ring, or just a stud set in skin. It dangles, like one of the earrings Jaeduck sometimes wears for concerts, a chain with a little charm on the end. It moves as he takes a step. Then, it disappears under his sweater again, hidden from sight.

Well. Looks like Jaejin cares now.

Behind him, Jiwon says, “Fuck. I need a drink.”

“Me first,” Sunghoon goes. “Christ.”

“I’m not buying,” Suwon adds. “But I need one too. Thanks.”

Jaejin can’t hear any of them. He’s suddenly very preoccupied thinking about the way that small chain would sway if Jaeduck did a body roll. Just the smooth, slow motion of his shoulders falling back, then the flick of his hips. He wonders if Jaeduck would be amenable to doing that without his shirt on. Once or twice.

Maybe a few more times after that.

Then, Jaeduck catches him staring in the mirror, and raises an eyebrow.

“Right,” Jaejin immediately goes, averting his gaze, voice a little wobbly. He pretends not to see Jaeduck grinning to himself in the mirror. “Back to practice.”

 

 

It’s months of radio silence on the ‘Jaeduck’s got a new piercing’ front, so much so that everyone figures he’s satiated his craving already, that the bellybutton one’s the last one he’ll get, that he’s done wreaking havoc with every new post he makes on SNS.

It’s not.

Jiwon literally runs right into Jaeduck one afternoon in the YG building. “Sorry,” he goes, reaching out to steady Jaeduck with a hand when he suddenly feels something under Jaeduck’s shirt that… doesn’t seem like it was there before.

Jaeduck lets out a little hiss. “Watch it,” he whines, pulling away. “That hurts.”

Jiwon’s staring. Oh fuck. He’s staring right at Jaeduck’s chest. There’s definitely the thin outline of something there. Two somethings. He can’t look away to save his life. “So, uh,” he says, “that’s where—? You—? Uh? Only recently—?”

He gets a blink and a smile in return. Jaeduck’s cheeks are a little flushed. “Uh, yeah. Like, a month ago. Didn’t really feel like mentioning it to anyone, ‘cause they’re still a little—”

“Sensitive?”

Yet again, Jiwon’s mouth operates before his brain can tell him whether it’s a good idea or not.

“Yeah,” Jaeduck says. “Y’know. That.”

Jiwon’s brain helpfully supplies him with the image of Jaeduck without a shirt on, and wandering hands, and maybe he’s thinking a little too much in detail about this now. A whole month ago? How the fuck did he not notice before? And, why can't he stop noticing now? Danger zone, danger zone.

He decides to flee before he says anything else. “Gotta go, see you later, bye,” he gets out, and makes a break for it.

Behind him, Jaeduck snickers.

 

 

At home, he crawls into Tony’s lap, and lets him put his mouth over one of the nipple piercings, one hand splayed over his stomach, his thumb just brushing over the stud in Jaeduck’s navel. Jaeduck curls his fingers into Tony’s hair, tugging him a little closer, and bites back a soft moan, eyes fluttering shut.

God, it feels so good. The feeling shoots straight down his spine, makes his toes curl. Jaeduck wishes he’d gotten these a long time ago.

“And to think Jiwon said these were wasted on me,” Tony says, flicking one of the piercings lightly, making Jaeduck squirm. “Then again, I don’t think he’d have wanted to hear about how I suggested most of them.”

“Pretty sure you’re getting most of the benefit here.” Jaeduck can’t help the next breathy moan that escapes his mouth when Tony does it again, toying with the piercing with his tongue, before blowing lightly over it. “Besides—besides me.”

“Good,” Tony says, a little possessively.

He suddenly sits back, and takes a moment to just look at Jaeduck. “What?” Jaeduck asks, feeling a little self-conscious.

“Seeing how pretty you look with all of these,” Tony murmurs, and he sounds so earnest about it that Jaeduck flushes all over, skin heating up as he thinks about the way Tony praises him so easily. “Alright, come here.”

And Jaeduck thinks to himself, right as he tilts his head down to let Tony suck at his lower lip, and catch the lip-ring between his teeth, _this was definitely the best decision ever._

 

 

**bonus:**

“Wait—what—you got another tattoo? _Here?”_

“Oh, whoops. Forgot to tell you about that one.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> henlo i exist on [twitter](https://twitter.com/KAMSANGl) and discord to talk about 1st gen groups and shippy content.
> 
> also the tattoo is a reference to [this work of art](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14668818), read it to save a life.


End file.
